Historic Estates for sale :
Haciendas / Estancias
tourist accomodation in historic Haciendas
guest ranches
ECUADOR :
Hacienda Cusin
Hacienda Pinsaqui
San Augustin de Callo
tour operator with a nice Hacienda site : Inka's Empire Tours
PERU :
Hacienda San Jose, Ica
ARGENTINA :
Ministry of Tourism
site a bit strange to navigate, click : Attractions/active tourism/rural tourism/ENTER/Estancias
and you find more then a hundred guest estancias
Est. Ancon, Mendoza
El Esteco de Cafayate, Salta
CHILE
Hotel Casa Real in
Santa Rita Winery
Hazienda tours on horse back
Hiddentrails
|
Travelling in the Andes countries, or travelling thru the internet, not leaving one's armchair, one notices that historic Hacienda architecture is not evenly distributed.
Going from north to south,
I tried to get some information from the web about historical (coffee?) estate architecture in Colombia, without succes. I would gladly receive some photos, information.
A hotspot of colonial architecture and even more so Hacienda Tourism is Ecuador.
The Andes valleys floors at around 2000 m altitude being rich algricultural land, it was here,similiar to neighboring countries,
that from the first days of spanish colonial rule grand estate were formed through land grants. And as in all Andean countries, it was based on more or less forced indian labour.
Today historic Haciendas form an important part of Ecuador's tourist image.photo : Ecuador, Hacienda San Augustin de Callo
|
Peru with it's rich colonial past and precious historic architecture of all sorts has comparably less old Haciendas remaining to this day. One reason being the agricultural reforms of the 1960's and 70's
which left former grand land holdings too small to economically support the maintanance of it's mansions. However, one example of surviving Hacienda architecture can be seen on the right.
In Bolivia wealth was historically more connected to mining then to agriculture. Bolivia's Andean heartland also being too barren to allow agriculture to flourish.
Farming in the eastern lowlands again is a more recent affair. I couldn't find anything about Bolivian historical Haciendas photo : Peru, Hacienda San Jose
|
North Western Argentina, where it is part of the Andes, posseses a very rich architectural heritage. Though much has been lost through earthquakes and other calamities over the centuries,
much is till standing to this day, preserved and often offering stylish tourist accomodation. photo : Argentina : Hacienda El Bordo de las Lanzas
|
In Chile
it is mainly the Central Valley, privileged by climate and fertility, where a few grand prestigeous estates have survived. Here as in North West Argentina they are often linked to wine production.
photo : Chile, Santa Rita Estate
|
|
An abstract about about the social role of Haciendas in EcuadorThe whole article can be read here :
source
Sierra haciendas extended from valley floor to mountain crest. The fertile valley bottoms were assigned to hacienda production whereas the steeper
lands went to peons. Costa plantation owners reached the same end by controlling riverine land with ready access to markets.
Historically, the traditional Sierra hacienda engaged in mixed livestock and crop production and relied on a "captive" labor force.
On the eve of land reform in the 1960s, about two-thirds of all farmers owned some land, but still remained dependent to varying degrees on haciendas.
Haciendas regulated access to land mainly through the huasipungo system. The huasipunguero or concierto peon was a resident laborer who received
a plot of land in return for labor on the hacienda and domestic service in the landlord's household. Although precise terms of tenure varied from valley
to valley and from time to time, they were typically disadvantageous to the peon. The huasipunguero usually had to provide four days of work per week
to the hacienda as well as domestic service--an especially onerous obligation that required both husband and wife to work full time at hacienda
maintenance for a specified period. Finally, peons had to participate in collective work parties during planting and harvesting.
A variety of subsidiary arrangements provided an auxiliary supply of laborers. Peasants from neighboring free communities often negotiated for the
use of hacienda firewood, water, and pastures. These peasants, known as yanaperos, typically worked one or two days per month and helped out at
planting and harvest times. Other peasants worked hacienda lands through some type of sharecropping arrangement. Some casual wage laborers or
skilled specialists were employed as production dictated, but these constituted a very minor part of the hacienda's total labor force. ...
Land reform legislation in the 1960s and the 1970s aimed at eliminating minifundio plots under 4.8 hectares and subjected absentee
landholders to the threat of expropriation. The threat prompted some landlords to sell off at least a portion of their holdings; the main
beneficiaries were peasants who could muster sufficient resources to purchase land. Land reform also eliminated the various demands for time
that landlords had placed on peasants. ...
|
|